The static and free vibration behavior of a pulley-belt system with ground stiffness is investigated using a nonlinear model based on Hamilton's principle. In the equilibriumanalysis a computational method based on boundary value problem solvers is adapted to obtain the numerical solution, whereas for free vibration analysis spatial discretization is done using the Galerkin's method to evaluate the natural frequencies and vibration modes. The study indicates that there is a considerable decrease in equilibrium deflection due to ground stiffness, especially when it is larger than the belt bending stiffness and this effect is more pronounced for higher values of belt bending stiffness. Equilibrium deflections change reasonably with static span tension variation, but are more sensitive to variations of speed and longitudinal stiffness. The natural frequencies of the pulley-belt system increase with ground stiffness, but this is primarily restricted to the lower modes; higher modes are insensitive to ground stiffness.
pulley-belt; ground stiffness; static equilibrium; free vibration
